Hi,

I have some flash inserted on a slide. The flash however calls other flash files that usually sit in the same folder or another subfolder of where the parent flash file is.

I've changed the imsmanifest.xml adding paths to extra files however is there anything else I have to change to get the course to work as is it doesn't work at the moment?

If your Flash movie loads other Flash files, then you did everything right: all these files must be included in manifest and placed in the folder, corresponding to path in manifest (note that they will be NOT included in published version automatically). If you want them to be included automatically, then you can create folder named "user" in the MODULE folder (if the folder with such name exists, then it will be included in manifest and in published version "as is").

where is the 'MODULE' folder you mentioned , is that the route course folder?

Sorry, I forgot to mention.
If you look inside the course folder (i.e. the folder, where *.wcl file is located), you can find there also folders named "courseimages", 1, 2, 3 and so on (depending on quantity of modules in your course). The "courseimages" folder contains some common files for all modules. Folders that named after numbers are modules folders (they are named automatically).
Each module folder also has standard structure: it has "images" folder, that contains all module images, sound, video etc. which was inserted in CourseLab as regular objects. Thumbnails folder is useless for author - it's design info. Author can create folder, named "user" at this level (i.e. the same with "images" and "thumbnails"). If such folder exists, then CourseLab treats it as kind of user-defined file storage and will publish whole this folder "as is" (no checks for links, just as is). This is not hidden, but poorly documented feature.

Thanks slav,

I've done what you have suggested and put the swfs in a 'user' folder however it doesn't seem to affect the 'view module' preview. It brings in the parent swf and not the child swf?

If I execute the parent swf in a browser it brings in the child swf correctly.

Do you think what i'm attempting is impossible in courseLab?

Try this. Open the file onto a page within Courselab then delete. This will add it to the correct folder and reference it in the manifest. You should then be able to link to it quite easily.
This also works with other file types, scripts that you want to reference from a page but not have embeded upfront.

Nick, your idea is correct. Just one correction: reference to deleted file won't be included in manifest file automatically, because there will be no direct link to it in module (linkcheck while creating the manifest will fail). In this case the reference must be inserted manually.
If you want some file to be included in manifest and in images folder automatically, then the better approach is to create the usual (but hidden) object with this file (image, video, flash etc.). "Hidden" means that it has "Display" parameter set to No, no autostarts etc. This object will be used as kind of "storage" for the file in run-time environment.

hi,

I can't get this to work [:confused:] Can I zip the two files and send to you guys to see if you can do any better?

I've simplified it to just a parent.swf that calls a child.swf.

Yes. At support@courselab.com

Doesn't work. You sure there isn't some where else, apart from the imsmanifest.xml where i have to change stuff?

I'm checking by double clicking the start.html file. That should work right? I know the files are in the correct place because executing the swf within the published folder draws in the dependent swfs?

I've decided to start again on this problem. I've simplified the whole thing.

I got on slide with an swf on it The swf loads another swf inside it. Simple as that.

Both the flash files reside in the top level of the course folder.

When I click 'view module' preview the first swf shows but the nested swf fails to be called?

The solution is surprisingly simple. The reason is:
- when the module loads and starts first SWF (parent.swf in your case) the base URL of this SWF becomes not "images/parent.swf", but the URL of holder HTML page (i.e. "start.html");
- when the parent.swf tries to load child movie as "child.swf" - it finds nothing, because there is no child.swf file at the same level with start.html.
Therefore, quick solution has two alternatives: a) place child swf explicitly into module folder at the same level with start.html b) change the path in parent swf to "user/child.swf" or "images/child.swf" and place child.swf file here.